Fahrenheit
by kyleiseverywhere
Summary: "I once read somewhere that it takes approximately 8.2 seconds of eye contact for the "love at first feeling" to occur between two people," Seth began, and then slowly smiled. "Allie, I fell in love with you within a freaking nanosecond. That's just how imprinting works." Seth/OC. Set roughly six years after BD.
1. Hope and Normality

**A/N: Hey guys, this is the re-written version of Fahrenheit for anyone who has read further before! I hope you can all take the time to review and let me know what you think so far as it would mean a lot to me, considering you, the readers, are the motivation for me to keep writing this. I hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight Saga, or any of its original characters.**

* * *

**Fahrenheit  
**

**1. Hope and Normality  
**

I remember everyone had been given bright pink party hats, and that I hated the color pink. I remember the cake crumbs that kept sticking to my fingers because of the obscene amount of sunblock plastered on my skin. And then I remember drowning in the Peachtree Corners community pool.

That was my seventh birthday party. It had both started and ended with my mom screaming down the phone to my grandma - tears and curse words galore on both occasions. The first time had been because Gram had met a new fancy man and couldn't make it to my "special day", and the other was from a hospital waiting room while my parents waited and waited and waited, expecting to hear the worst.

Just to make it clear, though, the doctors were able to resuscitate me. _Obviously_.

I had always thought that it was the most terrified I would ever feel – the dull weight of chlorinated water pushing down on my lungs before everything went black – until one evening back in February when my parents broke the news to me over dinner that they had decided to get divorced, like it was any other easygoing topic of conversation, and all of a sudden I felt like I was drowning all over again. The problem was that this time no one seemed to realize what was happening to me – no one except Gram and the fancy man that became her fourth husband, that is.

In fact, it was my step-grandfather, a Native American guy called Hudson who smoked way too much pot and spent way too much time fishing, who had arranged for me to stay with them for the summer so that I could clear my head and try to come to terms with my parents' decision to part ways.

It was only in hindsight that I wished he'd also taken the initiative to arrange my transport from Sea-Tac International Airport to the isolated reservation where he and Gram were living out their retirement. After almost an hour of waiting by the baggage claim and trying hopelessly to find an inexpensive taxi company that would take me all the way to La Push, I was on the verge of a panic attack. It was moments like these that I hated myself for not having passed my driving test.

So far I had called their home number seventeen times to no avail, and I was beginning to run out of witty threats to leave on their answer machine.

"E.T.'s calling home here," I sighed into the receiver of my cell phone. "It would be great if you could send the mother-ship to pick me up before I have to probe someone!"

It was a useless feat, though. They were likely either not in ear-shot of the phone or not even home at all.

By the time it was getting dark and the airport was starting to clear out, I made a last ditch attempt and began to follow the directions outside to the bus station when my cell phone began buzzing like crazy in the pocket of my denim jacket.

"Oh, _thank God_," I answered instantly instead of simply saying "hello" like a normal person.

"Who is this and why the hell are you going to probe someone?"

I couldn't help but frown as I realized the male voice was unfamiliar to me, as I probably was to them.

"It's Allie, is Hudson or Ruth there?"

There was a long pause and then he said, "They're out at the moment. You're their granddaughter, right?"

"Yeah, the one currently stranded in Seattle, to be exact,"

"Shit, um, hold on a second - Brady, come take the phone," he said, and a muffled conversation followed that I couldn't quite make out. A moment later he'd handed the phone over to who I could only assume was Brady, Hudson's great nephew, who told me he'd come to get me as soon as possible.

With a deep sigh, I headed out of the rain and back inside the airport, wondering just how much longer I'd be waiting here. Eventually I retired to one of the benches where a variety of people were waiting for arrivals and tried to keep myself occupied by re-reading my worn copy of The Hobbit.

I was finding it hard to keep my eyes open, let alone focus on the book in front of me, when I finally saw a haphazardly made sign with my name sprawled on it in bright green Sharpie. It was held up by a guy who was so tall and muscular he could probably be in the NBA, while he searched every face that passed him in an almost predatory manner as he presumably tried to find one that looked like mine.

"I assume you're the welcoming party," I began conversationally as I approached him.

The guy turned to me with a grin so broad that I thought his jaw was going to dislocate at any second and I found myself smiling back politely, hoping secretly that he was in fact Brady and not a murderer.

"You must be Allison," he gestured to the bright green writing. "I'm Brady. Sorry it took so long for me to get here,"

"Just Allie, not Allison. In fact, please never call me Allison,"

His grin got wider, if that was even possible. _Damn_.

"Well, Allie," Brady said with emphasis, "let's get you back to the rez before it gets even later."

I conceded and Brady took my suitcases from me, not even straining with the weight, which made me instantly jealous as I had struggled with just one of them. We made our way towards the outdoor parking lot where my horse drawn carriage, AKA a rust-gathering Volvo that was so old it really belonged in a Swedish museum, awaited.

"I'm sorry you couldn't get a hold of anyone sooner," Brady offered sheepishly after all the polite small talk had seemed to run dry. "Hudson had an emergency meeting with the rest of the Elders and Gram went with him. I'd literally just gotten home when Seth pointed out that we had fourteen messages on the answering machine,"

"Was that who called me back?"

"Yeah, he's a close friend. Pretty much the definition of a doormat. That alien thing kinda freaked him out," he laughed.

"I'm glad it did," I sighed, looking out the passenger window as we passed through the city limits. "At least it got you out here."

"Would you be annoyed if I told you I sorta forgot you were coming today?"

"Honestly? I'm too tired to care right now. How long's the journey, anyway?"

Brady considered this. "Four hours if we stick to the speed limit, three hours if we don't. It depends if you want me to be a responsible driver or not?"

"Well, let's try to make it two," I said, earning another grin in response.

"Fine but if I get a ticket it's coming out of your pocket,"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," I laughed.

"So you've been to La Push before, right?"

"Yeah," I told him as I tried to find a radio station to my liking. "I used to visit every now and again when Gram first moved, but the travel was expensive and my dad couldn't always get the vacation hours so we stopped coming."

"That sucks," he said, and I nodded in agreement. "I moved in with them just after I turned thirteen. We probably would've met sooner if you'd kept visiting,"

We probably would have, which was a shame as Brady seemed brotherly in a way that made me look forward to the summer ahead. I was an only child and I had no cousins that lived close enough to Georgia to get to know properly, so the idea of having someone in that respect was kind of nice.

I eventually settled on a local station that was playing an old Oasis song, and for the first time in months I was finally starting to feel myself relax with the prospect of spending my vacation in a place where I wasn't perpetually on the verge of tears.

Gram, Hudson and Brady and their home in La Push held the promise of hope and normality – the two things I had been craving for what seemed like forever - and I held on to that thought as I drifted to sleep somewhere on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

* * *

"Hey, wake up," a voice said way too close to my ear before I felt Brady not-so-gently nudge me in the ribs. "We're here."

I opened my eyes to find that we were parked in front of a small two-story house that I vaguely recognized in the dark. The front yard was an overgrown blur of flowers and a broad figure at the edge of the wrap-around porch, most likely waiting for us to get out of the car so that they could greet us.

"Is that Hudson?" I asked sleepily.

"Yeah, chain-smoking like an idiot as usual,"

"His hair's all grey," I said with a frown as I opened my door and gracelessly climbed out into the drizzle. Had I really not seen him in _that_ long?

"Probably the same color as his lungs," Brady laughed, shaking his head.

I waited until Brady had effortlessly gotten my suitcases out of the trunk before following him to the front door. Hudson appraised us as we approached before pulling me into a big, smokey hug.

"You guys were quick," he noted, giving his great-nephew a suspicious smile. "Seth said you only left around half-five."

"Found a new shortcut," Brady offered up quickly.

"Like hell you did," Hudson laughed. "Get caught this time?"

Brady pretended to look hurt for a second. "You act as though I'm regular law offender, Pops!"

"Maybe my apathy to your juvenile behavior is just an indication of how much I love you,"

"Or perhaps it just shows how apathetic you are to my very existence,"

Hudson threw his cigarette butt into a small metal bucket by the door. "Don't be so hard on yourself, especially in front of Allie! I don't want her thinking I'm not a family man."

"I would never think that," I said as he gave my arm a squeeze.

"And that's why you're my favorite," he laughed, shooting Brady a quick wink. "Now let's get you two inside and out of the rain. Your grandma's waiting for us in the kitchen."

Hudson led us inside the house and I was immediately met with the smell of lavender and Gram's hazy perfume as we headed down the hall and into the kitchen. My grandma was sitting at a cluttered breakfast table, her silver hair in a myriad of curlers and a cup of steaming tea in her hands.

She looked up as I walked through the door way and her leathery face broke into a smile.

"Sweetpea, your aura is all over the place! You best get over here and hug me quick," Gram demanded.

I did as she said and I was swept into the folds of her paisley dress within seconds.

"How was your flight?" Gram asked as we finally parted.

"It was fine," I told her. "Absolutely fine."

"Sorry about the transport problems," Hudson offered as he poured himself a cup of dark coffee. "Anyone else want some?"

I shook my head at him, instead taking a seat next to Gram at the table.

"No, thanks," Brady replied, heading towards the refrigerator. "But, just as a warning, I am going to eat all of the food,"

"Don't touch the stuff on the top shelf," Gram tutted. "That food is for Allie's welcoming barbecue tomorrow."

I must have paled quite a bit at this because all of a sudden Gram was explaining herself.

"Don't worry, I've only invited a few people over," she assured me quickly. "The weather's meant to clear up and I thought it would be lovely for us all to sit in the garden now that my roses are budding!"

"Did you invite the guys?" Brady asked cautiously, glancing over his shoulder to exchange a look with Hudson. I pretended not to notice as Gram absently waved off his concern.

"Only a few of them. _Jesus. _Do you think I want to completely overwhelm Allie on her first day?"

"Who are _the guys_?" I asked with a yawn.

"Friends of mine," Brady answered. "We help out with a lot council stuff. I'm pretty sure Gram's charmed all of them to mush on more than one occasion,"

Gram scoffed. "I can't help it if I'm the sweetest old lady in miles, can I now?"

"It might also be the fact that you stuff them all with cookies whenever they stop by," Hudson said redundantly.

"I also can't help it if I'm the only old lady that knows how to make shortbread," she said, then turned to me. "Now let's get your stuff upstairs and get you settled in, sweetpea. You look like you're practically about to pass out!"

"That sounds great," I answered. "I just wanted to thank y'all for letting me stay again."

"It's our pleasure, really," Gram answered seriously, giving my arm a quick squeeze before I was ushered out of the room.

Hudson took my suitcases up to the guest bedroom that I'd stayed in a couple of times before. An assortment of crystals that Gram believed held healing properties lined the windowsill above a narrow divan, and a bookcase that was practically overflowing with the work of contemporary poets sat between an oak dresser and the door.

I still loved it as much as I had as a kid.

Once he left the room I turned my gaze to the window, taking in the view of the forest that lined the backyard. The trees continued all the way to the horizon and probably further into the night, as though the Olympic Peninsula was simply a never-ending mass of green, and for a moment I tried to imagine what I would be doing right now if I had stayed in Atlanta instead.

I knew the answer though. I'd be out shopping for college supplies with my over-excited mother while she avoided all of my questions about the divorce, discussing the imminence of adulthood with my school friends and all the while wishing I had some form of escape.

But I did, and I had escaped - even if it was only temporary.


	2. First Impressions

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or of the its original characters.**

* * *

**2: First Impressions**

I woke with a start, finding myself in a mess of sweat-soaked blankets as my head began to throb.

_Just another stupid nightmare_, I told myself. I'd been having bad dreams persistently for the past few weeks and I had so far been putting it down to the stress my parents were causing me. _Get a grip, Allie_.

Turning onto my side, I saw that pale light was beginning to stream in through my window so it couldn't have been too early. Gram was probably awake already, an early bird practically from birth, and a few minutes later I heard the sound of the refrigerator opening downstairs, confirming my thoughts.

I pushed myself up and quickly got dressed, knowing that I could grab a shower later once the others were up and I wouldn't have to worry about disturbing their sleep. It was a Saturday, after all, and no-one liked being woken up early on the weekends. Myself included, usually.

"Oh, you're up early," Gram noted with a soft smile as I made my way through the doorway to the kitchen. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No," I told her. "I think it's just jet lag."

"Of course," she said, nodding to herself as wiped down the counters.

"So what time is this barbecue then?"

"Not 'till this evening, sweetpea. I've got to run a few errands in Forks first, anyway,"

Forks was a town close to the reservation, with a slightly larger population and the luxury of a dozen or so more stores. I didn't remember it very well, except for eating at a diner there the last time I visited and getting food poisoning, but I tried to sound relatively cheery as Gram continued to ask if I wanted to accompany her.

"Sure," I told her with a half-hearted smile.

"We'll head off in about an hour then. Why don't you go grab a shower first and do something with that crazy hair of yours?"

I frowned down at my frizzy waves as I said, "It won't wake Hudson or Brady?"

"I highly doubt it," Gram laughed. "Hudson went out fishing at the crack of dawn with his buddies. Brady, well... That boy could sleep through a damn hurricane!"

Nodding half to myself, I headed back upstairs and did as she said. My hair only ever looked half-decent in a side braid so I settled with that, hoping Gram would, too, and by nine o'clock we were climbing into her pick-up truck.

The reservation was just as small as I remembered it, although there were a few new amenities situated around the marina, as well as a set of traffic lights that hadn't been there before. Gram pointed out a restaurant that was currently looking for waitresses we drove through the tiny town center and I made a mental note to go in there at some point in the week.

During the journey Gram kept me occupied with idle chatter about the healing circle she had recently joined in Port Angeles, as well as all the need-to-know gossip about her neighbors and friends, and before I knew it we were pulling into a dreary parking lot in Forks.

"I've got to go into the hardware store to pick up a couple of things for Hud first," she told me as we got out of the car and into the drizzle.

For the next two hours I trailed behind Gram as she went about her business, picking up new fishing equipment for Hudson, returning books at the library, chatting with people she knew some way or another, and eventually I was told to wait in the car while she went into Ron's Food Mart to pick up a few groceries she'd forgotten to buy the day before.

Thankful to be out of the rain, I headed back to the parking lot without a fuss and got into the passenger seat. After waiting for a good five minutes, I decided to occupy myself by trying to find the radio station I'd liked last night.

After accidentally tuning into a couple that were playing either country music or local bands that were growing popular in Seattle, I found that I couldn't get anything else but static. With a sigh, I turned the radio off and found myself more than slightly taken aback when the static didn't stop. If anything, it was getting louder.

_What the hell_, I thought to myself, trying to turn the radio on-and-off again in a panic. Did I suddenly have some kind of freaking hearing impairment?

The static didn't stop, though, and after a minute or so it had grown almost deafeningly loud. My head was throbbing worse than ever as I verged on hysterical and then all of a sudden Gram was opening her door and it just... _stopped._

"Sweetpea, what's wrong?" She asked before putting her keys in the ignition, frowning at me.

"I don't know..." I began shakily. "I think I'm getting a migraine or something. Maybe tinnitus. I don't know."

"Tinnitus? Like a ringing in your ears?"

"More like white noise," I mumbled, turning to face the window as she started the truck. "It's probably nothing."

"Probably," Gram repeated quietly.

She was uncharacteristically silent for the majority of the drive back to La Push, and by the time we pulled up in front of the house I couldn't help but wonder if I'd done or said something wrong. I didn't push it, though, instead retreating straight back up to my room once we were indoors.

* * *

"Hey, are you alright?" Brady asked, poking his head through the door way to my room.

I looked up at him from my book. "Yeah, just a headache. I really wish y'all hadn't gone to all this trouble."

For most of the afternoon I had watched out of my window as Brady and two other guys I didn't know attempted to set up a gazebo under Hudson's instruction, just in case it did happen to continue raining. I couldn't help but feel bad that everyone was putting in this much effort for a simple barbecue, and part of me was almost starting to wish they hadn't at all.

"Don't be stupid, Allie. You should come down before everyone gets here, anyway. I want to introduce you to my friends,"

"Would these be _the guys_?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Only two of them, actually," Brady laughed, gesturing for me to follow him out onto the landing. "You'll meet the rest of them some other time. They can be a bit... Intense, I guess. But I promise Seth and Collin don't bite, OK?"

"Fine. Just give me five minutes, OK?"

Brady nodded and disappeared back downstairs a second later. After finishing the page I'd been reading, I put down my tattered copy of _A Tale of Two Cities_ and headed after him.

I took the stairs two at a time, trying to seem friendly and excited for my welcoming party, and was doing pretty well at practicing my best smile until I missed the last step.

If grace was a virtue then I was sure as hell the epitome of proper conduct. Kidding, of course.

But instead of hitting the floor and twisting my ankle like I expected to, I was caught by something warm and strong. My yelp of surprise was drowned out by something clattering to the ground noisily behind the warm and strong... Person? Yes, the muscular arms holding onto me definitely belonged to a person.

"Huh, it's not every day that I have a girl literally fall for me," came a husky voice and I looked up to meet a pair of smiling brown eyes. Oh, _wow_.

The guy in front of me, lightly holding me up by my elbows, was the literal definition of "tall, dark and handsome". He was definitely Quileute, I knew that, at least, and he was definitely one of the most gorgeous men I had ever met, with eye lashes so long that they brushed against his cheeks when he blinked and then blinked again as he took me in.

But the smile disappeared in a flash and then he was just staring with an unreadable expression on his face. Self-consciously, I stepped out of his grip and fixed the straps on my blue sundress, noticing that it was an acoustic guitar that he'd dropped.

"Sorry," I offered up lamely. "I promise I'm not weak at the knees for every strange man I meet,"

He didn't say or do anything for a second and I wondered if I had completely put my foot in it, but then Brady came up behind him in the hall and it seemed like our encounter was forgotten in an instant.

"I've been looking for you everywhere, man," Brady said. "Pops is burning every morsel of food in sight and it makes me want to cry - as in _little girl cry_. God, it's so fucking awful that I had to come in to hide some of the refrigerated stuff!"

It was only when the other guy didn't say anything in response that Brady noticed me on the staircase and the instrument on the floor.

"Oh, Allie, you finally showed that pretty face of yours! This is Seth Clearwater, my self-professed best friend and the poor, pathetic doormat of the reservation. I told you that part, right? Seth, this is Allie, the girl who wanted to probe you,"

I glowered at Brady, and after I few moments I thought strongly about glowering at Seth, too, when he still hadn't said anything.

"Hi, Seth," I finally offered.

Seth shot Brady a similarly dark look before turning back to me and saying, "It's nice to meet you, Allie."

"Is your guitar OK?"

"What? Oh, yeah," he mumbled, frowning as he bent down to grab it by the neck. Then Seth pushed passed my cousin, leaving us both staring after him in bewilderment.

"He seems nice," I noted with a snort.

But Brady was quiet, his brow furrowed as he seemed to be working something out in his head.

"Well," I continued. "I'm going to go find Gram, and get this over and done with,"

"He's not usually like that. In fact, he's _never_ been like that before," Brady commented, half to himself.

I glanced back at Brady from the kitchen door way. His grin was back now, wider than I had ever seen it, as though he had discovered something worthy of a Nobel Prize.

He slipped his arm around my shoulders in a brotherly way. "Don't mind Seth, OK? First impressions aren't everything, after all. I'm totally certain you two are going to be great friends,"

"I just embarrassed myself in front of him and got a shoulder that was colder than Antarctica," I groaned loudly. "That sure sounds like the makings of a great friendship to me!"

But Brady just grinned that silly eureka grin of his and steered me towards a group of locals sat underneath the gazebo, slightly to the side of Gram's petunias. I had forgotten just how beautiful her garden was in the summer; you couldn't tell where the flowers stopped and the forest started.

"You must be Allie," a guy greeted, offering me his hand to shake. He had the same distinctly Quileute features as Brady and Seth, and I quickly recognized him as the other guy who had been helping out earlier. "I'm Collin Littlesea. It's a real shame I'm gay because you are one fine piece of southern ass."

I gaped at him mid-handshake, partly because of how feverishly warm his palm was and partly because of what he'd said.

"It's, err, nice to meet you, too?"

"Jeez, Collin. You couldn't have been a little subtler?" The woman to the right of him laughed. As she turned to face me I couldn't help but notice the ugly scars that marred the right side of her face, and I quickly tried to focus on her friendly eyes instead. "I'm Emily, by the way, and this is Kim."

The slightly younger girl next to her offered me a soft smile before patting the seat next to her.

As I sat down, Brady nudged Emily and said, "Just so you know, Allie's said she'll take up my babysitting duties next week. How kind of her, right?"

"I'm sure she's done nothing of the sort," Emily chuckled. "But just so you know, Allie, you're welcome to stop by my house anytime."

"More welcome than Brady probably is at the moment," Kim said in a quiet voice beside me.

The group exchanged a knowing look and I shot Brady a questioning look.

"He broke Emily's antique coffee table," Collin finally offered.

"I swear to you it was Embry," Brady said with an exasperated sigh.

"Jared damn well saw you so don't even try to blame anybody else," Emily scoffed.

"Yes, of course, because Jared only ever speaks the truth," Brady muttered. "He's always_ so_ honest at poker, right?"

Kim turned to him, her pretty face contorted into a dark expression. "Don't you dare try to incriminate my fiance!"

"Brady has got a point there," Seth said and I realized I hadn't seen him approach the table. He looked over at me and held eye contact as he continued to say, "He cheated me out of fifty bucks just last week, Kim. Where did you think he got the money for that pretty bracelet you're wearing?"

The stare-off continued for precisely nine more seconds until I caved, sheepishly turning my attention away from the conversation and to the porch, where Hudson had precariously placed the fiery barbecue against the wooden railing and was attempting to cook what looked like three dozen burger patties at once.

_How freaking high is he?_ I wondered to myself, glad for the distraction.

I realized Seth was still staring as he took the seat across from me. I could feel the intensity of his gaze and I was trying my hardest not to either scowl at him for being so rude before or, more pathetically, _blush_ - which would have been a lot easier if he hadn't been one of the hottest guys I'd ever met.

"So you come from Georgia, right?" Emily asked.

"Yeah," I told her. "Atlanta, actually. The birthplace of confederate values and Martin Luther King."

"Sounds pretty ironic," Collin chuckled.

"Well, I'll bet it's really nice there this time of year," Emily said as sipped her drink. "Sunny, at least. None of this constant wind and rain!"

"Hey, the Sun is shining here for once, don't go jinxing that!" Gram exclaimed as she came to a stop by the picnic table with two much older adults I didn't recognize. "Making friends, Allie?"

I gave her a tight smile but Brady spoke up before I could, saying, "Oh, she sure is! Kim and Emily are taking her shopping at the weekend to find the _perfect_ pair of kitten heels, and then they're planning to spend the evening with two dashing gentlemen called Ben and Jerry!"

Gram tutted reprimandingly, which seemed to be a regular occurrence when Brady was involved. With a sigh, she turned to the stout woman next to her and said, "It's a good thing I don't believe in hitting children, right?"

"I'm nineteen in October! That hardly makes me a child," Brady scoffed indignantly.

"Once a pup, always a pup," the unfamiliar elderly man said, causing everyone to laugh. It was safe to say I'd missed the joke. "Welcome to La Push, Allison. I'm Quil Ateara but most people around here refer to me as Old Quil. This is my wife, not-so-old Darleen."

"You don't seem that old to me," I said politely, and he and his wife offered me a equally big smiles in response.

"So, Allie, what do you think of reservation so far?" Seth asked across the table, surprising me. His dark eyes flickered with genuine interest, almost smiling again like before.

"It's just how I remembered it. Peaceful,"

"You'd be surprised at some of the stuff that goes on here," Collin interjected with a chuckle.

And, as if on cue, there was a loud cry from the other side of the yard and I turned to see Hudson looking in awe at the fire that had taken a hold of Gram's prized rose trellis and half of the back porch. Gram was suddenly cursing at him, completely distraught as she jogged across the overgrown lawn.

"Well," Brady began thoughtfully as everyone turned to watch the flames. "This is incredibly inconvenient."


	3. Nightmares

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of its original characters.**

* * *

**3: Nightmares  
**

"Well, this time zone is definitely _not_ my friend," I announced as I dropped onto the leather couch next to Brady.

He didn't look up from the video game he was playing. The zombies on the screen weren't far off a resemblance to myself this morning, considering I had barely slept all night due to a mixture jetlag and not being used to the unrelenting rain that had pounded down on the roof.

"Shouldn't you be at school?" I finally asked with a sigh. Gram had told me that, although Brady and I were in the same grade, the Tribal School didn't let out for summer until next week, meaning he hadn't graduated yet like I had.

"Shouldn't you be researching how to make tea with those bags under your eyes?"

I smacked him upside the head, not regretting it one bit as he paused his game and slowly turned to glare at me.

"I'll forget you ever did that if you make me breakfast," he said. "The continental kind. Bacon and all the trimmings."

"Y'all have some high expectations of women, don't you?" I snorted.

"High expectations can be a good thing,"

I shook my head at him. "Not when they're sexist as hell,"

"Oh, _good God_, don't tell me you're one of those self-righteous, feminist hicks?"

This time I didn't have to hit him because Gram came into the living room, eyes round and livid as she took in the sight of Brady still in his pajamas. It was like a visual punch in the gut and that was better than anything I could've mustered with my pathetic lack of strength.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?!" She practically growled.

Brady blinked up at her in surprise. "Allie and I were just sharing our views on Obamacare. What's wrong with showing an interest in politics?"

I tried in vain not to laugh out loud.

"Get dressed and get your butt to school _now_," Gram commanded.

He looked between us for a second as though he was trying to decide which was the lesser evil. Defeated on all fronts, he got up and headed upstairs to get dressed. I couldn't help but think that if he had been a dog then he would definitely have had his tail in between his legs in that moment.

"Did you get any sleep, sweetpea?" Gram asked as she turned to me. It was obvious from the concerned look on her face that she already knew the answer.

I shrugged. "Not really."

"I've got herbal tablets that you could always take if you just wanted to rest up today?"

"As in Hudson's sort of _herbal_?" I laughed, raising an eyebrow at her.

Gram shook her head as she tidied away the assortment of video games Brady had left on the carpet and said, "Of course not. Emily, the woman you met yesterday, has an uncle who practices as a medicine man on the Makah reservation. She picks up remedies for me every time she visits."

"That actually sounds pretty cool," I told her. "Do they work?"

"Of course they do. I'll leave them on your bed before I head out, OK?"

"Book club with Angie?" I guessed.

"Actually," Gram laughed. "I'm going to a Reiki workshop in Port Angeles. All that Japanese healing stuff is really interesting, you know. But if you change your mind and want to go down to the beach while I'm gone then the spare key is where it always is, OK?"

"Got it,"

"Oh, and Seth's coming by soon to fix the porch soon," she added, a long-suffering expression on her face. She still hadn't fully forgiven Hudson for destroying her prized rose trellis and, even after the fire had been almost effortlessly combated by Sam Uley and an old hosepipe, Gram had stayed awake all night in fear that the entire house would combust at any moment.

"That's nice of him," I commented, hoping I sounded as nonchalant as possible.

"He's a good guy, so much like his father was. And such a hard worker as well - that boy's pretty much the unspoken handy-man here on the rez, you know," Gram was practically swooning as she spoke and I could completely understand why.

I wasn't going to deny to myself that over the course of the barbecue I had formed a small crush on Seth, despite his initial rudeness towards me, that is. I was trying hard to write it off as a simple mistake - that I'd only imagined the weird look he'd given me when we met on the stairs, that Brady was completely right about his audacity being completely out of character - but it was hard.

We hadn't talked much after the fire was extinguished and the others returned to the picnic table, however every now and again I would catch him watching me with a small smile on his lips and it would make my stomach do something close to cartwheels.

As Gram left the room, muttering something about not being able to find her car keys, I began to feel nervous.

With the knowledge that Seth was going to be over soon, I decided to make myself busy by fixing up something to eat. Gram waited until Brady had left for school before she drove off, leaving me alone in the kitchen with a toaster that I couldn't get to work.

"Stupid freaking thing," I groaned as I tried plugging it in again for the third time.

There was a loud rap on the back door, causing me to almost jump right out of my skin and drop the loaf of bread in my other hand. I looked up to find Seth watching me curiously.

"I'm sorry if I scared you," he said as he ducked through the doorway.

"No," I stammered quickly as I picked up the bread. "You didn't."

"That toaster doesn't work, by the way," Seth told me. "Hudson threw it out the window a few weeks ago when he burnt his thumb on it."

He was leaning against the breakfast table now, reminding me of how crazy tall and muscular he was in a way that made it hard not to stare.

"Why doesn't Gram just put in the trash then?" I said, frowning.

"I think I heard her say it will ruin the feng shui of the house if you even move it off the counter,"

I couldn't help but laugh a little at this. "Typical Gram."

He looked at me for a long moment, like he wanted to say something but was stopping himself, and eventually gestured towards the refrigerator.

"You don't mind if I make myself some food, too? It's never usually a problem," he asked, sheepish.

"Go ahead," I said. "So I take it you come over here a lot then?"

"Yeah, my house is pretty quiet these days so it's nice to come here and enjoy the good feng shui,"

The thought of Seth coming over on a regular basis stopped me from realizing he'd tried to joke with me until the moment had passed, and the pitiful squeak of a laugh that eventually left my throat left me feeling awkward beyond belief. Thankfully, though, he was making a sandwich and didn't seem to notice. Or at least if he did he pretended not to.

I mentally kicked myself, pulled my hair out, dragged myself through the seven circles of hell and back again.

Although my dating history was pretty boring and almost nonexistent, I had never been like this around a boy before. Sure, I'd known good looking guys back in high school and I had been crushing on celebrities since before puberty hit, but all of that was nothing like _this_ and I was beginning to get scared I was going to have heart palpitations if it continued.

"Did you want me to make you something to eat while I'm at it, Allie?" He asked, glancing over at me with a small smile.

Commence heart palpitation.

"No, thanks," I managed in a reasonably even voice. "I'm making toast."

He raised his eyebrows at me. "But the toaster doesn't work. I just told you that."

"Oh," was that even a sentence? _Jesus Christ, Allie. Get a grip_. "Actually I think I'm going to go upstairs and lie down for a bit. Still jetlagged, you see."

My laughter was as forced as imaginable, but Seth just smiled all over.

I made my way out of the kitchen quickly and headed upstairs to find a small bottle of purplish tablets that Gram had left on my bed as promised. I got changed back into my pajamas, took two, as the hand-written instructions on the label said, and laid down.

* * *

_There were no windows, of that I was quite sure, but there was a clock above the stainless steel counters that lined the walls. The numbers seemed to melt away as I tried to make out the time, though, and all of a sudden I realized I was dreaming. _

_I'd taken an AP psychology class in my last semester of high school and one of the things we'd learned was that you couldn't read in your dreams. But what I didn't remember learning was that you could recognize smells whilst asleep, and there were two stenches that made me want to vomit on the linoleum beneath my feet._

_Blood and bleach._

_"We haven't got all day," said a voice from behind me and I turned to find several faces looking at me, concerned and impatient, as they stood around an operating table.  
_

_I didn't recognize any of them but as I began to walk over, my feet as heavy as breeze blocks, I got a glimpse of the woman they seemed to be preforming surgery on. It was Kim - the friendly girl Gram had invited to my disaster of a barbecue a few days ago. She was paler than a Quileute should have been, almost deathly white, with a tendril of dark blood dripping from her right nostril all the way down to her chin.  
_

_I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. More than anything, I wanted to wake the hell up._

_"Are you going to start the procedure or not, Dr. Evans?"_

_Dr. Evans - that's what they'd said. I didn't know if it was the same person that had spoken before, and I didn't even have to look up to know they were all still watching me. Kim was on the operating table and I was supposed to be her surgeon; it was my job to save her life._

_A job I didn't even freaking want in my waking life._

_"We're going to lose her if you don't hurry," someone else told me, yelling now._

_I felt myself nod and then all of a sudden a scalpel was in my shaking hands. _

_I was leaning over her now, readying myself to make an incision I knew nothing about, when all of a sudden the fluorescent lights above us shut off. For a moment it was completely dark and all I could hear was myself breathing so fast that I was sure I was about to go into cardiac arrest.  
_

_But then the lights came back on and I was face to face with Kim.  
_

_As she opened her eyes I saw that they were the same bright crimson as the blood pooling from her nose and, ever so slowly, she smiled at me. It sent shivers down my spine and some instinctive part I knew I had to run. But run where?  
_

_"I'm faster than you," she said in an eerie voice that wasn't her own._

_And then she lunged towards me, nails and teeth tearing at my trembling skin, and I was quickly sucked into oblivion._

* * *

I woke with a start, opening my eyes to find a pair of brown irises looking straight back at me.

"Allie!" Seth's husky voice bellowed above my screams. "Hey, it's alright! Everything's alright, Allie. I'm here!"

It was only as he pulled me upright that I realized I had been crying in my sleep. Not only that, but I had quite obviously been screaming bloody murder, too. Why else would Seth Clearwater be in my room, trying to wake me up?

God, this was the zenith of embarrassing.

But more pressingly, why the hell was _Seth Clearwater_ in my room, anyway?

"I'm so sorry," I managed, rubbing at my eyes angrily.

"Don't apologize," he said softly. "You were just having a nightmare."

Seth's hand was still on my shoulder, holding me in a sitting position, and I was acutely aware of how feverishly warm his fingers were.

"You're hot," I stated without thinking and immediately wanted to kill myself right then and there.

But then he said, "you're wearing Hello Kitty pajamas," which was as equally lame and stupid, but it didn't make me feel better in the slightest.

I met his concerned gaze for the first time then and felt the long-awaited blush rise to my cheeks again as I finally asked, "Why are you in my room?"

This seemed to catch him off guard, at least, causing him to let go of me and step away from my bed.

"I heard you screaming from downstairs so I ran up here, you know, thinking there was a freaking burglar or something," he said finally.

"Oh," was all I could pathetically say in response.

"Are you going to be OK, though?" He asked, an intensely concerned look on his face.

In any other circumstances it would have been a simple question, however I was faced with the fact that I had just screamed the house down because of a stupid nightmare, and now Seth was in my bedroom and I was wearing freaking Hello Kitty pajamas.

"Allie, are you going to be OK?" Seth repeated.

"Yeah, sorry," I mumbled. "Y'all must think I'm such a freak right now,"

Surprisingly he laughed at this, "I've seen much freakier stuff than a girl having a bad dream so don't sweat it. Do you want me to make you some coffee or something?"

"That would be really great, thanks,"

He was out of the door in an instant, and I was thankfully left to alone deal with my mortal devastation. _Jesus Christ_. Not only had I had a nightmare that I could barely remember but Seth, of all the seven billion people in the world, had to be the one to wake me from it.

After wallowing in self-hatred for a good five minutes, I pulled myself out of bed and threw on the bathrobe that Brady had temporarily lent me in exchange for an old Crystal Castles CD and a packet of cherry Twizzlers.

Seth was already back to work on the roof of the back porch by the time I came down to the kitchen, but he had left a steaming mug of coffee next to the sugar bowl and I couldn't help the small, girlish smile that spread across my face.

I'd only met him twice and had probably weirded him out to the point of no return each time, but he had still made me coffee. _That boy_.

I was halfway through my second cup and trying hard to pretend I was focusing on the newspaper in front of me instead of stealing glances at Seth when Brady came home from school. He barreled up the porch steps and the two friends greeted each other by clapping each other on the back before Brady came into the kitchen.

"Good afternoon, princess," he said, grinning that silly grin of his. "Guess who's the best step-cousin in the world?"

"I don't know, who?" I said, shaking my head as he began to raid the refrigerator.

"_Me_, of course," he deadpanned.

"And why are you the best step-cousin of all time?"

He placed some luncheon meat and butter on the counter as he said, "Because I got you a job at the restaurant. You start tonight, actually. Now, please don't worry about being overzealous in your undying gratitude,"

"Thank you, Brady - I mean it," I laughed, giving him a hug that was somewhere between awkward and sisterly.

"Oh, God, are we going to be the type of relatives that _hug_?" He groaned loudly.

"We could brawl if you'd prefer?"

Brady laughed at this. "It's sweet that you think you could ever possibly take me in a fight,"

"What makes you think I couldn't?" I said, glowering at him now.

"Well, you're like five foot nothing and probably weigh as much as a sixth grader," he stated, matter-of-fact and annoying as ever. "I'm built like a tank and, more importantly, a _man_. A very manly man, in fact."

"I don't think I've ever heard something so narcissistic in my life,"

"Don't worry your pretty little head too much, Allie," Seth said from behind us. I hadn't even heard him come through the back door. "His bark's far worse than his bite. You could definitely take him."

I was far too caught up in the fact that Seth had just called me pretty to question the strangely comical look that momentarily passed between them.

The three of us sat down at the breakfast table as if it were the most normal thing in the world, which for them it might very well have been before my arrival, and Brady and Seth began to talk animatedly about a video game they both played. A couple of times I caught Seth looking at my bare legs as they poked out from the edge of the bathrobe, and it made me feel dizzy in a way that I couldn't quite explain.

But what made me feel even dizzier was the knowledge that I'd be starting a new job in an unfamiliar town in just a few hours time, so after they'd eaten I excused myself and went upstairs to shower and get ready.

It was only as I came back into my room afterwards that I realized one of Gram's crystals was missing from the windowsill, and in it's place was a small pile of ash.


	4. Closing the Distance

******Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of its original characters.**

**A/N: Hello there, ladies and germs! I just wanted to let you know that the first three chapters have been re-written, and while nothing has been changed dramatically, some of the scenes have been tweaked a bit and if there's anything that you find hard to follow from here onwards then you may want to read back. Also, I'm going to follow the actual Quileute legends with this story (of course with the exception of Stephanie Meyer's Cold Ones tale) so please try to follow as best as you can. Hope you are all enjoying Fahrenheit so far, thank you so much for all the brilliant feedback! Why don't you guys let me know what you're expecting to happen in the next few chapters? Anyway, here's chapter four for you...  
**

**Lots of love,**

**Helen.**

* * *

**4: Closing the Distance  
**

The first job I had ever gotten was working a jewellery stall at one of the larger malls in Atlanta, which was a million times less glamorous than you might imagine. Twice in my first week a customer had asked me to help them fasten one of the expensive silvery bracelets around their wrists and both times I had ended up snapping the links, effectively getting myself fired _and_ grounded, seeing as my dad had to apologetically pay the jeweler for the pieces I'd clumsily broken.

With that experience fresh in my mind during my first shift at the Riverside Restaurant, I was surprised to find that I could handle working as a waitress without spilling wine or food over every customer that walked through the door, and after a week or so I was growing used to working there with Brady every other night.

However Seth's unwavering presence at Gram's house each morning was something I was still becoming accustomed to - not that it bothered me in the slightest, though.

Even after he had fixed the porch for Hudson, he kept coming over and part of me was beginning to think it wasn't just because he was currently unemployed and wanted to hang out with Brady to kill time, considering Brady was at school most of the time. We had spent hours on the back porch since I'd arrived, talking about everything and anything, and I swear to God that every now and again I would catch him checking out my butt if I got up to go inside.

When he arrived that particular Saturday morning it was surprisingly sunny and I was outside with Gram, lazing on the lawn next to her fireweeds and letting myself get caught up in one of the books I'd found upstairs, while she hung a fresh load of laundry on the line.

I barely acknowledged Gram's warm greeting to him and then all of a sudden he was standing above me, eyes smiling, mouth quirked upwards in boyish curiosity.

"Enthralling story?"

I lowered the hardback and looked at him, able to hold my gaze steady for once as I said, "It's poetry, Seth. Not a storybook."

"My question still stands. Is it enthralling?" He insisted.

"Kind of," I began, returning his smile with a small one of my own. "The writer obviously has some daddy issues, though. It makes the poems feel sort of repetitive, despite the fact that they're really well written."

"Which poet is it?"

The fact that he was lingering surprised me a little, considering Gram was a mere fifty yards from us, probably eavesdropping. Even more surprisingly, though, he proceeded to sit down next to me. From this angle, with the sun shining down on his face, he was effortlessly gorgeous and I was effortlessly _not_.

"Sylvia Plath," I told him and he nodded to himself thoughtfully. "Why?"

"I might have to read some of her stuff," he told me earnestly. "That way we'd have something in common to talk about."

This information was unexpected and I raised an eyebrow at him, suddenly curious.

"I'm not saying that I doubt we have stuff in common," he continued quickly. Wait... Was he _blushing_? "But it would be, you know... Nice, I guess. Something to shoot the breeze with and all that shit."

"Or y'all could just talk to me, anyway," I offered lamely.

"Isn't that what I'm trying to do, Allie?"

It was my turn to turn red now and I was sure Seth wasn't oblivious.

For the first time I was aware of how close we were next to each other, only a thin patch of grass between my legs and his, and I wondered if I would ever be able to close that gap between us. Figuratively and literally.

When I looked back up he was watching me intently, a soft smile on his lips, and the whole idea didn't seem so far fetched in that moment.

If I moved my hand just a few inches then I'd be touching his...

"I'm going to get some groceries. Does anyone want anything from Ron's?" Hudson called out from the porch, referring to one of the stores in the nearby town of Forks, and drawing me back to reality.

"I thought you wanted to watch the game today," Gram frowned at him as she shook out a large white sheet. "I was going to go shopping later while I ran some errands."

"We have _no_ food, Ida. It appears Brady made himself a midnight snack _again_ and a man needs his lunch," he said in exasperation.

"Allie and I can go into Forks, if you want," Seth offered with a shrug.

Hudson lit a cigarette as he considered this. "You want to waste your day running errands for old coots like us?"

Seth was looking at me as he spoke, dark eyes smiling, "I really couldn't think of a better way to spend my Saturday."

* * *

We made the journey into Forks in Brady's beat-up Volvo, which I was allowed to borrow from time to time, despite the fact that I didn't have a license. Seth, after shaking his head in disbelief for a good few minutes at the fact that I'd failed my test four times, took it upon himself to drive and we were in the parking lot of Ron's Food Mart within the hour.

"Do we need a cart?" He asked as I read the shopping list Gram had given me.

"Definitely," I said. "Y'all would think we were feeding the five thousand with the amount of food she's put down."

Seth laughed as we made our way into the store. "Well, us Quileute men do have remarkably big appetites, you know,"

"Oh, I've noticed," I smiled, shaking my head.

"Speaking of Quileute's," he continued, now pushing a rickety shopping cart. "Have you heard any of our stories? I mean, since you're into that kind of stuff,"

"You mean the legends? Sure, Hudson told me some of them when I was younger," I told him.

"Which stories did he tell you?" Seth pressed.

"Only a few - can you get that for me, please? I'm too short to reach," I gestured to the tinned items on the top shelf.

Seth did as I asked with a grin on his face, as though he found it funny that my mere five feet and one inch was nothing in comparison to his hefty build. I, on the other hand, just found it mildly frustrating.

"So which ones did he tell you then?" He asked again as we rounded the next aisle.

"Um, I can barely remember to be honest," I said sheepishly. Why the hell did it matter so much? "He told me me about the Thunderbird, I think, and the whole creation story with the wolves but that's about it. Why, Seth?"

"I was just curious," he offered up with a perplexing smile. "The legend of our creation is really important to the tribe, actually. I kinda figured that since you're an honorary Quileute you should be refreshed on it."

"Then feel free to refresh me," I said, and then cringed.

For a moment I was scared he might take it as in innuendo, but for some reason Seth was taking the change of conversation very seriously. For someone usually so calm and easygoing, it was interesting to see him so... _Enthralled_ by something like his tribe's legends. They were obviously important to him and I was more than happy to listen to his voice as he re-told me the stories I had grown up with.

"The Great Spirit brought life with him to this land," Seth began matter-of-factly as he scanned the shelves for the particular brand of cereal Brady ate. "When he reached what we now know as the reservation, he saw no people. The only thing he saw were two wolves, so the Great Spirit transformed those two wolves into people and dubbed them the Quileute's and said, "For this reason you Quileute shall be brave, for you came from wolves." That's how we came to be."

"And are you a brave Quileute, Seth?" I asked, teasing.

I expected him to laugh or, at least, smile that little smile of his, however when Seth turned around to face me his eyes were guarded. "I'm not by any means as brave as I should be," he said in a low voice, and for the longest time I thought his following silence meant the conversation was over.

Eventually he sighed. "Do you think you could ever believe it, though, Allie?"

"Being the good Christian girl that I am, believing it would blasphemy," I laughed but his expression only darkened further. "I don't know, Seth. They're nice stories to hear as kid, but that's all they are for me, really. I mean, legends are nothing more than words whispered through the generational pipeline, right?"

"Right," he finally said through gritted teeth.

We finished up the grocery shopping in a heated silence, neither one of us meeting the other's glare. I couldn't understand why he was annoyed with me, and for that reason alone I was therefore annoyed with him.

One minute this guy was charming and relaxed, the next he was serious and brooding. I'd suffered from whiplash once before after being in a car accident with my friend Samantha in tenth grade, and every time he switched moods it felt exactly like I was experiencing it all over again. _Damn him_.

Once the cashier had rung up all of our things and I'd paid using Gram's card, we headed out to find the clear skies had dissipated and it was raining once again.

If the Great Spirit _is_ real then he sure knows how to use pathetic fallacy effectively.

Seth opened the trunk of the car and began to pile paper bag after paper bag inside, his expression tight. Every time I tried to help, he'd simply shoot me a dark look and then get straight back to loading the shopping. By the time he had finished, I was one glare away from smacking him upside the head.

Just as he was about to wheel the cart back inside, Seth visibly stiffened.

"What's wrong?" I heard myself ask as his sour expression turned slack.

"Nothing," he said too-quickly, looking around us carefully. "Get in the car, Allie. It's probably best I take you home."

"But Gram asked us to run errands for her while we're in town,"

He stopped my protests quickly by saying, "It's getting pretty overcast, and you're only wearing shorts and a t-shirt. You're not getting sick on my watch, OK?"

"I haven't been sick since I was seven," I told him, and it was true. "There's no need to worry about a bit of rain, Seth. This _is_ Washington, after all."

"We're going back to the rez _now_," he said flatly.

I was scowling at him openly now.

"You and Brady run around in nothing but cut-offs _all the time_, and you're worried about _me_ getting sick?"

"Will you please just get in the car, Allison?"

_He'd pulled the name card_.

He had pulled the freaking name card, and I'd had more than enough of him ordering me about. What had started off as a nice day that I had been over the moon about spending with him had turned as bad as his mood, almost as quickly, too. Ugh.

"You can get in the car and drive back to the reservation," I told him. "But I think I'm going to get the bus home instead."

"Don't you dare," he shot back, uncharacteristically angry now.

"You're ordering me about just like my parents - and I moved across the freaking country to get away from them, Seth," I snapped back. Having a big fat crush on the guy meant nothing at the moment in time; I was beyond annoyed at him. "Do I have to move again?"

"Do you have to be so freaking melodramatic?"

"Says the guy getting worked up over a little wind and rain," I seethed.

"The bus only runs once every few hours, anyway," he muttered under his breath and I pretended not to hear him._  
_

We stood there in the downpour, scowling at each other, for the longest time imaginable. Seth's hands were shaking and, judging from his expression, I could tell that he was the kind of person that didn't get into arguments often. Or, at least, he worked very hard to stay calm so that he could avoid them.

Eventually, he pushed the cart to the side and slowly walked towards me. His face had softened into a solemn mask by the time he was standing right in front of me, close enough to reach out and touch.

For the past week I had wondered what it would be like to be in such close proximity to him, although, I hadn't imagined it to be during an argument. Part of me desperately wanted to take his hand in mine and make amends, but a bigger part of me still wanted to hit him. Hard.

"I'm sorry," he said in a voice so quiet I barely heard him. "I didn't mean to order you about, Allie. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted, I guess," I huffed, unable to meet his eyes. Instead I turned my attention to the small amount of asphalt between our feet.

Seth seemed to notice because he closed it further as he asked, "Now can we please go back to La Push?"

His palm was on my cheek then, gentle and unexpectedly warm, and I noticed that he was no longer shaking.

I could feel the callouses on his fingers against my cheekbone as my annoyance began to fade, and I remembered how Gram had said he only found work doing odd jobs for people after being fired from a nearby lumberyard last spring. In that moment, I desperately wanted to be one of those girls who had the courage to meet his questioning gaze and just do _it._

_Just kiss the guy. _

_Just close the rest of the distance. _

_C'mon, Allie! _

"You know," he began, chuckling lightly. "You kinda look like a drowned rat right now,"

The moment was dead and gone and buried six feet under instantly.

"And you smell like wet dog," I shot back straight away, then shook his hand away and gracelessly made my way around to the passenger seat. I ignored his laughter as I shut the door behind me, happy to be out of the rain and away from the _what if_ situation we'd just found ourselves in.

We pulled out of the parking lot a few minutes later with Seth driving almost as fast as Brady usually did. He was still on edge about something, I could tell, even if I didn't know him that well yet. I made the conscious decision not to try to pry again.

It was only once we were on the Interstate that he finally turned to me and said, "The Bell Jar."

I turned to find him grinning like a little boy as I managed a confused, "What?"

"Sylvia Plath wrote a story called The Bell Jar," he told me. "Therefore what you were reading earlier could very well have been a storybook."

I was unable to suppress the stupid smile that spread across my face as I realized he'd been thinking about it in depth, meaning he had taken in interest in what I'd said. But did that mean he'd taken an interest in _me_? Oh, sweet Jesus, what it...?


	5. Intimate Matters

******Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of its characters.**

* * *

**5: Intimate Matters  
**

Gram was busy cleansing the house with sage by the time we arrived back in La Push, muttering to herself about all the apparent bad energy that was around today. With a sideways glance at Seth, I remembered the heated argument back in Forks and I could completely understand what she meant for once.

"Where's Hudson?" Seth asked my grandma as he set the grocery bags down on the counter - _all at once_, I might add.

"Out back," Gram said, waving the charred herbs in the direction of the back door.

Hudson was visible at the each of the yard, smoking what I could only guess was pot and grumbling animatedly to himself. It was easy to assume from his agitated posture that the Thunderbirds had lost to the Wranglers _again_.

"And Brady?"

"Asleep in his room,"

"_Still_?" I scoffed, incredulous.

"He was working late," Seth explained before ducking out of the room. Over his shoulder he continued to say, "and he'll be out late again. We have urgent council matters to attend to."

I stared after him in confusion. Urgent council matters?

"What exactly does the council have them doing all the time?" I asked Gram as I began putting away the groceries.

"Oh, you know, conservation of the land, protection of the tribe. That kind of thing, sweetpea,"

I raised an eyebrow at her, certain that she was being purposely vague.

Just as I was about to push the subject, Seth and Brady came rushing down the stairs and into the kitchen. The latter wasn't even properly dressed, but it didn't seem to faze him in the slightest as he made his way out the back door with no more than a nod in my general direction. Gram didn't even tut disapprovingly at his lack of clothing, which left me more than slightly flabbergasted.

Something weird was definitely going on.

Seth was about to follow suit, however when he looked from Gram to me and then back again he hesitated.

"Why don't you take Allie over to Emily's this evening? I'm sure she'd enjoy the company,"

"That sounds like a great idea," Gram said, offering him a grin that didn't quite reach her grey eyes. The boys were both gone a moment later and, when I didn't hear a car start up out front, I could only assume they'd taken one of the trails through the woods.

I sighed as I put the empty paper bags in the recycling can.

"I'm surprised, Gram," I told her.

She turned to face me, eye brows furrowed as she continued to rhythmically wave around the sage. "What on earth do you mean?"

"You're letting Brady stay out late two nights in a row, right before his graduation? Mom used to say that if she wasn't home by ten o'clock sharp, you'd ground her for a week, yet you're letting him get away with this?"

"Council matters are very important to the boys on the rez. You'll come to learn that,"

"More important than education?" I pressed, knowing there was something she wasn't telling me. Gram might've been liberal but she wasn't _that_ lenient.

"Classes can be repeated, sweetpea, but other things in life cannot,"

"Like what, though?"

Gram sighed. "Allie, the council deals with a lot of intimate matters. It's not my place-"

"If you really must know," Hudson interrupted as he came through the back door, the smell of marijuana lingering heavily on him. "We've been having some problems with security on the reservation. There are some troublemakers who are banned from Quileute land and the guys deal with them when they try to come here. Now, does that satisfy your need to know everything?"

There it was again. _The guys_.

"Yeah," I finally mumbled, admittedly embarrassed that I'd been so insistent on something that obviously had nothing to do with me. "Sorry for being nosy."

Hudson's expression softened and he pulled me into a hug. "Don't apologize, kiddo. There are just some things that the tribe like to keep to themselves."

I nodded, mostly abashed.

"Well, why don't I take you round to Emily's in about an hour or so?" Gram interjected.

"No, thanks," I told her. "I'd rather just stay here, if that's OK with y'all."

"How about during the week then?" Gram seemed persistent so I offered her a half-hearted smile and nod. "That'll be wonderful. Emily and Kim have been dying to spend more time with you, you know,"

The mention of _Kim_ and _dying_ in the same sentence made me feel funny in a way I couldn't quite explain. Before I could think about it any longer, my cell phone rang and the caller ID told me that it was my mom. Having ignored her for almost ten days straight, I decided to answer it and get the argument over and done with. Seeing as I was pissing off everybody today, one more person couldn't possibly hurt.

* * *

"I don't get it," Brady complained as we walked home through the trails after work on Sunday afternoon. "Just because a girl has some obvious advantages it shouldn't mean that they get tipped _excessively_ more than a prime specimen of the male species."

I scoffed and said, "I would hardly call fifty bucks excessive."

"Hitler wouldn't have called invading Poland excessive," he shot back and for the thousandth time I had to refrain from hitting him.

"Are you really comparing me to Adolf Hitler?"

"You're like the culinary Hitler," he chuckled as he jumped effortlessly over a tree root. "But with boobs and a redneck attitude."

"Sometimes I wonder why Hudson and Gram choose to put up with you,"

"I'm very loveable. Like a cute, little puppy,"

I laughed at this comparison, knowing full well that at least half of the reservation would describe him as the exact opposite.

"Speaking of puppies," he continued, quirking his eyebrows at me suggestively. "Have you noticed how my best friend follows you around like one? It's kinda sickening - actually, it's _really_ sickening,"

As soon as I felt my cheeks begin to flush, I turned my attention to the evergreen trees surrounding us and tried to pretend that the forest was the most interesting example of nature that I'd ever come across.

The truth was, Seth seemed to be the most interesting example of boy-kind that I'd ever come across and it annoyed the hell out of me that Brady was joking about it. Did he really feel the need to tease about my obvious crush on him? Or was he being serious about the idea that Seth seemed to reciprocate it?

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I told him nonchalantly.

Brady scoffed at this. "Like hell you don't, Allie. The guy's crazy about you! It's completely killing our bromance."

"_He's_ crazy about _me_?" I repeated slowly.

"Why do you sound like that's so hard to believe?"

"Brady, I'm basically an annoying dwarf and we both know it," I told him, earning a laugh in response. "I find it hard to believe that any sane guy, _especially_ Seth, would be interested in me,"

"So you admit that you like him then?"

I frowned at him. "I didn't admit to anything. Stop being nosy."

"You never stop being nosy so why should I?"

Oh, dear Lord. I was really going to hit him soon and I was going to hit him _hard_.

"OK. Stop being childish then,"

"I'm not childish," Brady said, eyebrows knitted together in insult as we neared the edge of the yard. I could already smell Gram's countless flowers from the path and it inadvertently made me walk faster as I realized it had really begun to become to smell of _home_.

"If you're not childish then I'm not Caucasian," I retorted.

"Don't lie, Allie. You're like the whitest white girl in this town,"

"That's hardly fair," said a voice from the lawn as we broke through the line of trees. Seth smiled up at me from where he was helping Hudson repair a fishing rod, continuing to say, "She's in the ethnic minority so she can't really help it."

"You guys should come down to Georgia sometime and see just how _white_ a white girl can be,"

"Oh, _God_. Don't tell me they drink Starbucks and drive pink convertibles," Brady whined as he clambered up the porch steps. Instead of following him, I hovered by the charred remains of Gram's trellis and met Seth's unwavering smile with one of my own.

"It gets worse than that," I replied. "They have tiny pet dogs and try to rebel against their parents by refusing to pay their credit card bills."

"Let me guess, that was your life in a nut shell?" Hudson interjected as he lit a cigarette, apparently taking a break from the repairs to his rod.

"No," I laughed. "I rebelled by following your advice and coming here."

"Oh, so I'm the instigator? Good to know, kiddo," he said, winking at me as he followed Brady inside.

I turned, laughing still, to find Seth striding towards me and I was once again taken aback by his sheer height and build. He and Brady really could have been mistaken body builders, which was strange as I never saw them doing any form of exercise.

"Do you miss it back in Atlanta?" He asked me.

"Surprisingly, I don't," I told him. "Not at all, actually."

"I'm glad," he murmured, grinning now. "So I thought I'd let you know that my mom's invited you all over for dinner this week to celebrate Brady's graduation. She thought it was only fair, seeing as I'm round here all the time."

"That's really kind of her. Have you told Gram?"

"Yeah, she was going to tell you later but I sorta wanted to do it myself," I couldn't help but wonder if he was actually blushing again or if I was simply going mad because of what Brady had said. "And plus, my mom wanted to me to make sure you weren't allergic to anything."

"I have hay-fever but no food allergies," I told him and he nodded to himself.

"I used to get hay-fever, too," he said. "And asthma but all of it has more or less cleared up now."

"A girl at my high school died of an asthma attack in tenth grade," I bluttered out and then mentally smacked myself. Of all the replies I could have thought of to say, I had to mention poor Ellen Carmichael? I was such an awkward mess at times.

Seth frowned but finally said, "I'm sorry to hear that. Was it awful?"

"I don't really know. The funeral was bad, though. Her mom brought in all these bouquets of sunflowers and it made my hay-fever go off the charts. My eyes started watering so bad that one of the girl's uncles thought I was genuinely heartbroken because we'd been close or something. Then her family made me give a speech at the reception about how fondly I remembered her and I had to lie my way through the whole thing,"

_Stop, Allie. Please just stop talking!_

"Lying at a funeral? You are definitely going to hell," he said, shaking his head at me incredulously.

"Hell would be a walk in the park compared to that day," I grumbled. "I must sound like a total bitch, right? God. Sorry. I don't even know why I started talking about her. I just always say the wrong thing."

"No, you don't," Seth laughed. "In fact, I think it's sweet that you choose to lie rather than admit to the whole allergy thing, like you didn't want to hurt her family any more than they already had been."

"I guess when you put it that way I don't sound so bad,"

"No," he said thoughtfully, then added with a wink, "but still totally hell-worthy."

"Are you guys coming in to eat or not?" Gram suddenly called through the open window, dragging my attention away from Seth and wiping my mind clean of any witty reply I could have thought of.

"Sure," he called back and then made his way towards the porch.

I sighed, knowing my chance to talk to him alone was over for today. Once indoors there was no chance of finding out if what Brady had been saying was true, however as Seth paused, turning to offer my his open palm, I realized that maybe I didn't need to.

I took it willingly, knowing that if Ellen Carmichael's funeral had been hell then I was surely closer to heaven now.

* * *

I woke up in cold sweats in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Expecting to roll over in my bed, I let out an audible gasp at finding myself sprawled underneath one of Gram's rose bushes instead. How on earth had I ended up out in the yard in the middle of the night?

If it wasn't for the fact that it was freezing and there were several thorns digging into my thigh then I would have been sure it was just a dream. But unfortunately for me it wasn't, considering that in theory you couldn't feel the cold or pain in your dreams. This was real, and I was awake. Worst of all, I was freaking _stuck_.

"So what did the Elders say?"

I froze in the middle of trying in vain to squirm my way out from under the bush.

"We think you should at least consider it, man," said a second person a moment later.

The male voices were coming from the forest and they were quickly approaching the house. I lay as still as possible, knowing that if I could hear their footfalls then they would sure as hell be able hear me struggling to get out of Gram's garden. Not only did I not want to have to explain to some stranger that I'd been unknowingly sleepwalking, but I also kind of wanted to know what they were talking about.

"Everyone keeps telling me to," a familiar voice answered and I felt myself frown. _Seth_. "It's a big responsibility, though. And what do we do if the ritual doesn't work anyway? They said there's no written proof that anyone's even tried it."

_Ritual? _What the hell were the guys up to?_  
_

"There's a first time for everything," Brady added thoughtfully.

"A first time for everything to go terribly wrong, you mean," Seth shot back.

"Everything's already going terribly wrong," the first voice said. "Sam's not going to change his mind and Jared can't be in charge, not with his family growing,"

"What happens when I have a family, though? I have an imprint now, Collin. An _imprint_," Seth replied, and I could hear the frustration in his voice. "I can't just decide to take on something this huge without her input."

_Her input_. It implied that Seth had a significant other. A girlfriend. A fiancee, maybe.

A small, admittedly pathetic, part of me hoped that there was a chance he was talking about, well, _me_._  
_

But what the hell was an "imprint"?

I'd been so caught up in this revelation that I didn't hear the rest of the conversation, I just lay there instead in heartache. A few minutes passed and I heard the back door shut, letting me know that Brady had finally gone inside. The other voice dissipated as they rounded the house and then I was finally alone to wonder further.

Could it be possible? I mean, Brady had pretty much outright said that Seth liked me, too, but Brady being Brady meant that there was a very high possibility that he was simply messing with me. But Seth had held my hand for at least two minutes and forty-six seconds straight the other day, which had to mean something, didn't it? Did it mean that I was the _her _that he was referring to?

I must have wallowed there in the flowers and the drizzle for a good five minutes before I finally dragged myself out from the rose bush, my pajama trousers only ripping slightly on a couple of thorns as I wiggled free.

As I got to my knees, I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder and let out a small shriek.

I dropped forward, twisting around in the mud to find myself staring up at a shirtless Quileute guy I hadn't met before. He was looking at me, amusement clear on his dark features as he held his hands up innocently.

"You must be Allie," the guy said finally, a hint of a smile pulling at his lips. "Now, tell me, don't you know that curiosity killed the cat?"


End file.
